And on Feb. 15, Dolores Halbin endured a frightening few moments when some kind of wild animal screamed into the night just 100 feet from her rural Pulaskifield farmstead, three miles southwest of Monett.

Halbin is convinced those screams were from a mountain lion pouncing on her pet goat, Frodo, leaving bite wounds on the goat's neck. And she wonders if the missing peacock and the deer's hind leg might also be the work of a mountain lion in the area.

Dolores Halbin's pet goat Frodo before the Feb. 15 attack that left the animal with bite marks on the back of its neck and an injured leg.(Photo: Dolores Halbin)

Mountain lions are so rare in Missouri, the state conservation department has confirmed only 70 sightings since 1994.

Halbin said it's lucky that her 120-pound pet goat survived.

"I heard screaming, what sounded like two male cats fighting, but it was incredibly loud," Halbin recalled. "I grabbed a big flashlight, my cellphone and my .38 pistol I was going to use to shoot a bullet into the ground. But it had a broken firing pin and didn't go off."

She jumped in her car and drove the short distance to her goat pen, honking the horn all the way.

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Dolores Halbin walks around the area where her pet goat, Frodo, was attacked by what she believes was a mountain lion in February. (Photo: Nathan Papes/News-Leader)

"When I got there, my goat was laying on its back, its hind leg bent out completely from where it should have been," Halbin said. "He also had bite marks all over his neck. It looked like it jumped on his back and bit all around his neck."

Frodo ran off behind her car, and her other pet goat, Dodo, appeared "absolutely terrified," Halbin said. The two goats ended up inside a nearby barn and refused to come out.

She never saw what attacked her goat, but Halbin said her family's 101-year-old farmstead, with a running creek and small lake from a long-abandoned quarry, would be ideal mountain lion habitat.

Some neighbors who heard about the attack volunteered to set up four game cameras on her 62 acres, with plans to check them on Saturday.

MDC drawing compares mountain lion and dog footprints.(Photo: MDC)

"I will be real interested to see if they captured anything on those cameras," Halbin said. "If we've got big cats here, I'm not going to have goats. I don't want to shoot them. I just hope we can cohabitate with them."

Shortly after the attack, Halbin found some large tracks in the snow with claw marks clearly evident on the tips. She has since learned that mountain lions don't leave claw marks in their footprints; their claws stay retracted until they're needed to immobilize prey or climb trees.

Fearing the animal might return, Halbin said she moved Frodo and Dodo to a friend's property, where they are more protected from invaders. At this point, she doesn't think she'll bring them back.

And if the marauder returns?

"I bought a couple of these air horns," she said, showing off two of the high-decibel warning devices. "I think they'll be way more reliable than the gun, which is in the shop being repaired."

Dolores Halbin moved her two pet goats, Dodo, left, and Frodo, right, after she says Frodo was attacked by a possible mountain lion on Feb. 15. Frodo(Photo: Dolores Halbin)

Because young family members like to visit the property, Halbin said she'll equip them with air horns, and she thinks her four energetic dogs also will help deter any wild creatures they might come across.

"We've seen hawks and eagles and deer out here," she said. "And we have a lot of raccoons. I won't be surprised if we have some mountain lions out here too."

Sumner said Halbin's description of the wounds on the back of the goat's neck could indicate a mountain lion attack. But they also could be from a bobcat, feral dog or coyote, he said.

Without more physical evidence, it's not possible to say what attacked the goat, he said.

"Mountain lions are relatively reclusive animals," Sumner said. "We don't know how many are in the state, and we haven't confirmed any breeding population yet."

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A male peacock at Dolores Halbin's house on Wed. March 7, 2018. Her female peacock disappeared and Halbin wonders if whatever attacked her pet goat also killed the peacock.(Photo: Nathan Papes/News-Leader)

He encouraged anyone who believes they've seen a mountain lion to call MDC's Mountain Lion Response Team at 573-522-4115, extension 3693. If they have a trail cam photo or other photo evidence, he said that can be shared by email at mountain.lion@mdc.mo.gov.